Strong Flat White

Cloud Atlas coming out this October!

Fight Club?

I do not share these frustrations, no. Where do you go to school?

Also, if it's anything like last year, MA's do get notified pretty late, despite what the department says. That was me, and I was just lucky enough to already be on campus, strolling by casually, asking about those postal notifications they kept promising to have mailed out this week, then the next week, then the following week... I got my letter on March 16th, and that was only because they were able to hand it to me rather than post it.

Lol, I was going to say ZAMM, too, but since someone beat me to the punch, let me add _Ishmael_ by Daniel Quinn! Given the choice, I would reach for Heidegger first, without any hesitation.But what an interesting thread... to see so many strong, even passionate, opinions...

I can't remember which school it was, but I was recently on a website that explicitly said not to worry about works cited/bibliography/appendices/etc in the page count, meaning that what seems to be the main default assumption here (that page limits refer to bodies of text only) gets at least one case of institutional exoneration. If I find that school again, I'll post the link here, but for what it's worth I it's totally reasonable that if a school caps the writing sample at 20 pages, then you can feel good about submitting your 20-page sample with its 1.5 page (or whatever) works cited section... even if that means that your paper is page-numbered all the way up to 22...

Hey, super helpful, thanks goldenbuff/fellow CU person! Alright, based on that, my last question is whether it's possible to know which schools are going to request additional information (con #2)? Based on my last application experience, I can't access recommendation forms/requests through any given institution's online system until I already have an application open with them, right? So, my options would be to find out through the website's app guidelines (not always possible/specific enough), to ask the department in advance (lots of work, not ideal), and/or to get my application accounts up and running ASAP to know the deal. Am I missing anything, or does that sound about right? I think I'm more or less sold on it, just want to make sure I don't screw myself with it. Thanks again, goldenbuff.

How do people feel about Interfolio? Anybody coughed up the dough and paid for the service? If so, was it worth it? If so, why? Since most schools seem to have their own delivery systems, and since Interfolio claims to be accepted by ALL institutions, does this jive? Basically I got a prof who will give me a stellar rec but is making it clear he only wants to write/submit once; he's the one who told me about Interfolio. Thus I feel obligated to use it. I don't know if he realizes it costs money, and I don't really want to tell him. Actually I'm perfectly happy to pay it if I can feel good about it not sucking. Since I'm planning to apply to about 15 different schools, my concerns are that a single letter might be too general/not focused for each individual program, and then there's the logistics of delivery. Many thanks in advance!

_Vacation_ by Deb Olin Unferth... my new favorite!

Check it out, a theory course called "Biopower" and a special topics "history of embodiment" course that is all to do with the human hand! Yes, a HAND course! (and that's all...)

Tweed, I'd be down if I weren't also out of town on Spring Break! Bummer. All I can say is campus is beautiful, I hope you enjoy it. English is housed in Hellems, on old building in a good spot....

Sure thing, Byrd - I posted my email just now as a comment on your profile. Let's talk about CU.

Hello friends, I'm an internal applicant to the MA program and got my snail mail acceptance yesterday (I live about 15 minutes away from CU). Some of my current TA's have enlightened me a little about the funding situation, as has Cynthia - basically, they don't have any funding structure for MA's, aside from hopefully giving you a TA-ship for 1 or 2 semesters out of your degree... this may not sound necessarily like "no funding," but Cynthia's words to me were in fact, "no funding for MA's," so there you have it. Getting a classroom is a little extra cash and some teaching experience more so than a funding package. I think it's a little misleading since number one part of our application is a TA application, and number two the acceptance letters word it such that funding is available, just not for you - NOT the case, nobody gets funded, so acceptances are all the same (I intend for this to be clarifying and reassuring... even though it means less money for all of us). Also, MA's at CU- when they do get teaching opportunities - get a recitation (only PhD's get their own sections of Mod/Comp Lit (3060)). And lastly, I've got it straight from the grad chair that PhD is being fully overhauled, meaning first of all that future applicants to the PhD program won't need an MA (as is currently the requirement), but also that they'll take fewer applicants but fund each of them better. That's generally the direction programs go when they want to climb in prestige, which is what I understand to be the current priority at Boulder. It will make things more competitive, but it will be better for accepted students. I think it's fantastic and very exciting, the whole department is buzzing with energy and coming into its own, I feel. Anyway, I'm definitely accepting this. I'm also on staff at CU so I can use a tuition benefit and work part time on campus and if you can't tell I just really dig the department. I've had a truly special experience with nearly every professor I've taken a class from. Best of luck to everyone and I can't wait to meet those of you who are coming in Fall 11!

Confirming what Corey said, I just got told that decisions are going out next week, but it sounds like they're sending letters snail mail so maybe it will be the following week? Speaking as an MA applicant, no clue about PhD's.

I bet your writing sample is awesome, you've been throwing yourself into this topic for so long. I am confident for you. Keep in mind, there are dudes like me out here! Take heart! Your competition! And you should feel really really good about that, because I happen to be putting together a writing sample without ever once having taken a class in theory. Not once. Ever. Well, not yet. Flying totally blind. You guys should see it, it's hilarious. Imagine it. You can't, but try. It is too hilarious for words. I can't even seriously bring myself to solicit advice. At least you can do that seriously - solicit advice, that is - without people laughing at you. I am so jealous. You can actually seriously discuss a writing sample without making people laugh so hard that whatever they are drinking comes out their noseholes. In the all-of-you's vs. the all-of-me's this application cycle, the all-of-you's are going to seriously clean up. I am emphatically not worried for you. Do your medieval thing, do it boldly, and prepare to trounce your competition! It's going to be an epic Beowulf kind of slaughter.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but it seems intuitive to me... a PhD in creative writing, within that school's English Dept. Kind of a rare thing, I guess, but I found a joint lit/creative writing PhD on USC website, and DU (Denver) is boasting the "oldest creative writing PhD in the country."

... and you'd be right, ecritdansleau! I DO love reading this article, thanks for providing. For anyone who has followed some posts of mine and is fed up with my so-called disciplinary distinctions (even though that's not at all what this is), I ask not only for your patience, but to consider this line from the article that ecritdansleau just sent: "...his essay illustrates the difficulty of being precise in a realm of imprecision..." This strikes a deep chord in me and much better articulates my fondness for language as a primary tool - both artful and academic - which is why I previously tried to engage in qualititative/quantitative dialogue [fail!] and also why I found attractive this idea that criticism can be [should be?] art. Hopefully, then, it becomes clear that I'm not anti-anything, rather I'm pro-everything, very much trying to have my cake and eat it to. I don't think this is so much greed or ambition or a set of blinders so much as it is a hopeful passion... and a largely correct intuition for the types of [apparently unpopular but nonetheless valid] questions that I want to ask. By the way, ecritdansleau, the way that that author Rosenbaum discusses "To Autumn" is probably similar to how I feel about Emily Dickinson's "As if I asked a Common Alms" and may indirectly [or directly?] be my inpsiration for entering a gorgeous new field. I think it's telling, too, that I have written so little about this work, formally or otherwise. I clearly have a big mouth and am not afraid to run it, but that I have been silent on a subject for which I have such tremendous respect is indicative, to me, of the attitude that Rosenbaum describes in crticism of poetry - that the criticism must needs be at a comparable caliber to that of the poem itself. So true. Certainly then, I'm flattered by wordslinger's two-line cryptic Ezra Pound reference - a very artful form of criticism in its own right (about my post!) and one that follows Rosenbaum's discovery that two-line kernals of colorful cricitism - poetry about poetry - are as delicious as the "mandarins" that spawn them. I'm left to conclude that wordslinger therefore identifies as an artistically-inclined critic, and thus unwittingly [or wittingly?] answers my question. Words well slung, lingering on like the citric aroma of that fleshy mandarin stain burned into my skull by Oscar Wilde! To Bumblebee9: you note a very interesting phenomenon. I have nothing to add, other than to agree with your observation. To Riotbeard: Peter Hopkirk comes to mind on the narrative front, especially The Great Game. Talk about your gateway drug to [geopolitical] History, I love that guy! To glasses: quite possibly the most apt responder who would be able to offer a perspective on whether Mencken [or Wilde] comes off as offensive. Care to share?

WUSTL looks good to me.

Dear forum, I recently stumbled upon this notion, the "critic as artist," as I was exploring, uh, the possibilities. Don't laugh, it's new to me. Wetting myself thusly in the stacks, however, I proceeded to Google the phrase and traced it back as an Oscar Wilde dialogue (the first reference I found to it was in an edited volume w/ mouthwatering - and probably highly offensive - "preliminary ruminations" by HL Mencken). Mencken and Wilde, Wilde and Mencken. Such a pair. I think I'd enjoy having a beer with their ghosts. What I'm curious about is how deep does this oxygen-rich vein of sublime soul-igniting, intestinal-flora-tickling mischeif actually run? Is it widely accepted, condemned, or controversial? Does it offend the "pedagogues and poets"? Does it put off adcom committees? The reason I ask this last bit is because I'm trying to get a sense of how deeply entrenched is the Lit/Creative Writing divide. I mean, if [good] criticism is in essence creative nonfiction, then the two are inseparable. Or not. I have overheard many a comment to suggest otherwise, and not just in a formal sense, but in a nearly hostile sense. Now, let me please say that I understand the necessity of formal distinction, as well as the extremely different work that goes on between the two types of departments. So, that's not what I'm asking. I don't mean to ask a pedantic question or to have a pedantic conversation, rather I am hoping that this is a valid theoretical query stemming (admittedly, perhaps deviantly... or not, that's my question!) from the Critical/Analytical side of the aisle: How many critics out there view themselves as artists? How many object? Who doesn't care? And why not? I sure would like to tread lightly - if this is a conversation that already happened, I do apologize in advance!

All depends on your landing page: http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/graduate-students/specialty.php

WOW! I didn't get that impression at all! Let it be known that others out there didn't see this as fishing or condescending. This coming from a guy who has no shot at snobbery in his lifetime. Or am I fishing? Wait...